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Sony considering Xbox Live-like service

Sony is testing the waters to see if it's time for an online gaming service, …

Sony may have a lot of things going for it in the gaming business, but one thing they don't have is a competing service to Xbox Live. Sony has steered clear of the managed online gaming service business, and for good reason. Microsoft has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their online offering, but analysts to date have expressed doubts as to whether or not it really adds to the company's bottom line in a meaningful way.

Now it seems that Sony is considering getting in on the action. The company is sending around a questionnaire to some gaming editors loaded with questions aimed at assessing whether or not people find online play fun, and what kind of (very Xbox Live-like) features they might like. Questions range from the innocuous, "On a typical day, how often do you play games online?" to more specific queries such as "Game Lobbies should be Eyetoy compatible[?]" Some of the more interesting questions are as follows:

3. What is your preferred Online gaming format? 6. A single identity and password for all online games? 7. Global Lobbies allowing you to play against anyone in the world? 8. Game Lobbies should be language based. (English, French, German etc) 9. Game Lobbies should be based geographically. 11. Headset support in all online games? 12. A QWERTY keyboard as standard for messaging. 14. Friend List allowing you to see online/offline status? 17. A feedback rating allowing you to choose who you play against? 20. Automatically filter opponents based on connection quality? 21. The ability to download music, game demos and other content? 24. Ability to take movie clips in game and share them with friends? 26. An in game grief reporting system? 31. A specific lobby only for Adults. 32. Service should feature a Global Ranking system for each game.

Sony's interest is obviously piqued, and who can blame them? Nintendo's DS is selling like hotcakes (especially in Japan), and their wireless gaming support is a big part of that. Additionally, Microsoft is seeing impressive Xbox Live uptake, although admittedly it is too early to take that data seriously. And to make matters worse for Sony, the puddles of drool left about by fans eager to see what Nintendo's Revolution will do with online game distribution are getting messy, too. The vibe out there is clear: people want to play online and get content online, and they want it to be easy to do so.

The timing, however, is immensely confusing. I would think that Sony can't be waking up to this realization just now, but they're asking questions of a very fundamental nature, almost as if they decided to consider this route only last week. Conversely, one could argue that they have a basic service secretly under wraps, and are looking for a feature set to peruse, but I doubt that very much.

And how would this relate to the PS3? While it now looks like a late 2006 launch in North America is likely, that doesn't afford the kind of time necessary to make the hardware and software changes needed to support a networked gaming service (at least, not in time for launch). Sony is clearly interested, however, and it leaves me wondering why this, why now.

Anxiety?

Ken Fisher
Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation. Emailken@arstechnica.com//Twitter@kenfisher